5.08.2008

Le Toux official and other related things

Thanks to David at Goal Seattle we learned that Sebastien Le Toux is the first Sounders FC signee sometime last month. Well, apparently word just got around to the newspapers, because it wasn't officially announced until yesterday. (No idea on the contract information, but we'd guess 80k to 100k a year for 3 or 4 years). While that is no new information, there are a few things to be learned from this announcement.

- The internet is your friend, as far as breaking news goes. We had the official team name figured out ahead of time and Goal Seattle had the Le Toux thing way ahead of time. And it's not just us. As we get further into the internet age, bloggers are being able to get information about any number of subjects much faster than newspapers and get it online immediately, while a print paper may take a week or more to get a story printed. It is and will continue to be a big shift in the way the public gets their information.

-To complete this signing, SSFC signed Le Toux, then immediately loaned him to the USL Sounders for the remainder of this season. Huh.

- Here's USL Sounders coach Brian Schmetzer, via the Indirect Kick blog. "We’ve developed him on the USL level. Now he’s made the jump to Seattle Sounders FC. We hope to do that with six, eight, 10 of (the USL Sounders) and hopefully we can have a good nucleus of the team for ’09." All we're going to say about that is if they seriously think 8 or 10 guys can go from the USL to MLS, the 2009 season is going to be a very painful one to watch. For some perspective: Le Toux, last seasons USL MVP, only wound up on the Sounders after he was cut from FC Dallas. Let's hope this quote from Schmetzer is just motivational and not an insight into the strategy of SSFC.